High Definitions (HD) video conferencing enables high quality, full screen eye-to-eye communication between users who are physically apart without even realizing it. It provides users the feeling of being at the same room and table with the remote users thus provides the sensation and experience the executives needed.
Before high-definition encoding/decoding, video conferencing data was encoded based on the Common Interchange Format (CIF). Video standards, known as H.261 and H.263, were developed by the International Telecommunications Union—Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T). With the H.261 standard, only the QCIF and CIF formats were defined. The Quarter CIF (QCIF) format was applied for conferences at only the lowest data rates (64 Kbps and below) and is rarely used today. Once the H.263 standard was released, more formats (4CIF and 16CIF) were introduced with “full resolution” being defined as 16CIF.
The ITU-T has recently adopted new standards for video compression, the process through which a complete video file is reduced in size so it can be transmitted more economically over a smaller network connection (lower data rate/bandwidth). For high-definition video conferencing, the ITU-T now recommends the H.264 video standard, which provides superior quality at relatively low data transfer rates.